Indian police have arrested 14 people in connection with the brutal gangrape of a 20-year-old tribal woman under public glare, for her alleged physical relations with a man from outside her community, in the eastern state of West Bengal, a senior police official said Friday.
"We have arrested 14 people, including a village headman who had ordered the gangrape, which took place Tuesday night in the state's Birbhum district. The local police chief has also been transferred for failing to prevent such an incident which has shocked the country," he said, on condition of anonymity.
In fact, the couple -- the victim and her lover -- was tied to a tree Monday night by a self-professed village kangaroo court and then the village headman ordered the gangrape a day after as the duo failed to pay up a fine of Rs 25,000 (500 U.S. dollars) imposed on each of them.
"I was raped by men who were of my father's age upon instructions of the village headman," the gangrape survivor, currently undergoing treatment at a local hospital, told the media.
India's Supreme Court this morning, taking suo motu cognisance of the gangrape case, issued a notice to the West Bengal government, terming it "very disturbing news". The court has asked the West Bengal government to file a report within one week and asked the district judge to submit his report too.
The state government has assured all possible help to the victim.
Gangrapes are increasingly becoming common in India. In December 2012, a 23-year-old medical student was brutally and fatally gangraped by six men on a moving bus in the national capital, which she had boarded along with her boyfriend while returning home after watching a movie.
While four of the men have been sentenced to death by a fast- track court, the main accused allegedly committed suicide in his prison cell during the trial while the sixth convict, being a juvenile, was ordered to undergo three years in a reforms facility.
The case sparked massive protests, forcing the Indian government to introduce stricter laws for sexual offenders.
